My name is Greg Cruey... and I'm a blogaholic. I have other blogs. This blog covers a number of topics - politics, personal stuff, life in Appalachia (since I live there), languages and linguistics, the Internet and blogging, philosophy and religion, places I've been (or want to go), and whatever else I think about when I should be sleeping...

Monday, March 22, 2010

I recently submitted the following letter to the editor to a number of local and regional papers...

Dear Editor:

Morgan Griffith (R-Salem), the current Majority Leader for the Virginia House of Delegates, has decided to run for Congress. And he wants to represent us here in the Ninth District, even though he’s never actually lived in the Ninth District. I guess after getting little Willie Morefield elected out here with their money, Republicans from the Eastern part of the Commonwealth think they can just start sending us their candidates! Well, as a resident of the Ninth District, I resent it.

Why does Morgan Griffith believe the people of the Ninth are incapable of representing themselves? The Census hasn’t even been taken yet and state GOP leaders are already preparing to redraw our lines to fit their political needs. They can’t find a resident Republican in the Ninth District to run for Congress here, so they’ll import someone.

Morgan Griffith is a city boy who will serve the region poorly. He has little insight into our needs or our values. We don’t need his hypocrisy out here; Griffith is one of those GOP ideologues who likes to talk about how much he hates the stimulus and then show up at ribbon cuttings for projects funded with stimulus money. His home town of Salem has benefited more from Stimulus money than any place in Virginia outside Richmond. He’s gotten $1287 per person in Stimulus dollars for the people he represents there.

We don't need a political opportunist from outside the Ninth District to represent us in Congress. If Griffith wants to run for Congress, let him run in the Sixth District, where he lives. We don't want a stranger representing us.

Greg CrueyAdria, Virginia

Since submitting the letter, I've realized that the US Constitution allows any resident of Virginia to represent the Ninth District - regardless of where they reside in the state. Griffith doesn't need redistricting to redraw the Ninth around his house, after all.

2 comments:

Greg Cruey is playing the typical liberal game of distorting the facts to mislead the voters. No wonder he supports Rick Boucher - a man who professes he's "one of us" then constantly votes with Nancy Pelosi and the San Francisco wing of the Democratic Party. The truth is, Salem is tiny jurisdiction that happens to have a VA Hospital, a transportation HQ and 2 colleges. If Mr. Cruey had actually looked at the money he's referencing, he'd see that none of it was for "stimulus funded ribbon cutting ceremonies." Of course, the truth doesn't matter to people like Mr. Cruey.

As for his charge that Republicans are manipulating the borders to bring Morgan in, this is just ignorant. It is well known that the 9th District will have to expand by 70,000+ voters. Under any model, this will put Salem in the 9th. The more important question, which Mr. Cruey ignores, is why does the 9th District need so many new voters? Why, after 28 years of Rick Boucher's reign, has the population of the 9th dropped precipitously, jobs left at an alarming rate and our way of life placed under attack. Maybe if Boucher spent more time dealing with our problems, rather than cow towing to Nancy Pelosi or showing up for every photo op and taking credit, we wouldn't be in the predicament we are.

Thank God someone of Morgan Griffith's caliber is willing to stand up for us and remove Nancy Pelosi's favorite son from office.

DHF, I believe I acknowledged already that I was wrong about redistricting and its impact on Griffith's bid for the office.

Perhaps I'll find the time to get you source documents on the stimulus funds. You're right in suggesting that I didn't do the reseach myself. I quoted other sources. But I quoted them because I believe they are correct (the truth does matter to me) not because they simply say what I like.